


And I Hold You Close

by RollingWings



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Father-Daughter Relationship, References to Depression, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 10:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23849437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RollingWings/pseuds/RollingWings
Summary: They're a small family. But they're there for each other.
Relationships: Izumi & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 119





	And I Hold You Close

Izumi is smart, and a proficient fighter. She knows this. She studies diligantly, and as a result is the top student of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. But for all of the knowledge and skills that she has, there are two facts she knows for certain. That her father is young for a ruler and that he’s lonely.

In one of her history classes she learns that the youngest Fire Lord to ever rule was a boy named Anzen at age six, and although her father is the second youngest after that, she's still glad he had ten more years than the youngest when he became Fire Lord. Izumi is currently fourteen years old, and she could never imagine herself taking any responsibility for part of her nation, let alone the entire country. She's only just started her education on politics.

She's aware her father made some shaky calls during the first few years of his reign, but she knows that he faced the consequences for them and made sure that problems were solved and compensations were made after the fact. Her father has been Fire Lord for nearly two decades now and the people adore him, but even at the mature age of thirty he's still _ young  _ for a Fire Lord.

She sees it in the way his face scrunches up when another pile of paperwork is brought to him to look over, and the way he prefers the tea cakes over the tea during their day time snack. But over all she sees it in the stubborn lock of his jaw as the Fire Sages try to advise him to reconsider her as crown princess. She's positive that the only reason her title isn't revoked is because she's a firebender and for her pale hazel eyes like her father's. Only those with noble blood have golden eyes.

Izumi is not related to her father by blood, but she sees him more as a parental figure than the blurry memories of her actual parents. 

When he was a few years into his rule, Zuko would wander through the capital disguised as a commoner to better understand the needs of his people. Izumi knows that his guards went mad trying to find him the first few times he snuck out of the palace, and although it should worry her that the royal guard couldn't keep track of a twenty year old Fire Lord, she can't be anything but grateful for their carelessness.

She first met Zuko at the tender age of four, when she was scared, alone, and bitter at the children who made fun of her pale eyes; too young to know what they meant. Zuko would visit the orphanage randomly and between awkward stretches of time, but he would always bring sweets and show the children tricks with his sleight of hand after talking to the orphanage's workers for a few hours.

Izumi never joined in on the crowding children when he visited though. She didn't like how they clamored and yelled for his attention, and so she would sit by the side of the play area under one of the trees and pick at the grass and dirt.

Then one day as she was messily braiding a few weeds together for a bracelet, a shadow fell over her blocking out the sunlight she needed to work. When she looked up to glare at whoever had interrupted her she was shocked to see eyes just as pale and golden as hers behind a large burn scar that stretched across the left side of his face. The rest, they say, is history. Izumi was adopted a few months later, after the happiest days and weeks of her life passed with her father visiting her to sit and calmly chat and bond over clumsy humor and vanished parents.

(Izumi suspects that her parents were Ozai supporters who would have an easier time fleeing the country without an extra mouth to feed. She can't say she's upset about being abandoned if that's the case.)

However, as much as Izumi must thank her father for all the love and care she has now, she's fully aware that he needed her just as much as she needed him. She can't be mad about it; she loves him, but she's just so worried about how  _ sad _ he gets.

She knows he has friends; they rarely ever come by, and she knows that it's because of their busy schedules but she can't help but feel bitter that her father has to wait every few years to socialize with the handful of friends that he made while saving the world as a  _ teenager _ .

Izumi tries her best to be around though. The Royal Fire Academy for Girls is a boarding school, but she takes the two hour trip back to the Capital every week on her break days to be with her father. The trip is long and boring, but she never regrets the traveling once she sees her father standing at the gates to meet her and nearly burrows her in his many layers of Fire Lord robes to hug her.

They eat lunch together and Izumi will chat with him in his favorite garden to catch up and regale all of the gossip she heard in the school halls while he smiles and hands her handfuls of grapes and seeds to throw to the turtleducks. He stopped feeding them bread when she learned that turtleducks can't digest bread. She suspects his guilt for giving them such unhealthy snacks still lingers.

But although she comes by every week, she knows that he still feels lonely most days. She knows because sometimes when she visits for longer than a day she'll find him in the throne room with his head in his hands, silent and low. On those days, she forgets stuffy court etiquette to climb into his lap like she did as a small child to hug him. He'll flinch like he forgot she was there, but then wrap her in his arms and hold her close with a warm hand on the back of her head and an arm around her back. He'll rock her side to side with her head resting on his shoulder, and slowly, he'll relax and his breaths will become less shaky.

Sometimes, she'll find him sitting alone in his garden, his gaze locked on nothing as his spoiled turtleducks eat out of his palm. When that happens, Izumi makes sure to walk as loudly as she can to sit by his side quietly until he's ready to come back to himself. He'll smile at her, and run a hand through her hair, then invite her to have tea to tell her stories of his chaotic youth.

And although it rarely happens, sometimes she'll find him literally burning with rage, destroying one training dummy after another with earth shattering explosions and shouts composed of fire. She's not sure what to do with his anger yet. If she didn't know that his anger derived from sadness, she thinks she would be afraid of him. But she knows that there are occasions where he feels so strongly that tea and hugs aren't enough, and the only outlet for his emotions is through rigorous training and screaming. On those days, Izumi asks the palace servants to prepare a hot bath for her father, then sneaks into his room to collect his paperwork from his bedside table and replace it with his favorite theater scrolls.

The morning after, he always invites her to train with him to teach her a new firebending move.

(He hesitated when she asked about bending lightning. She doesn't fault him for his reaction when she learns about his second scar.)

Izumi knows she has a lot to learn before she becomes Fire Lord, but she's confident that her father loves her as much as she loves him. She doesn't know what the future will bring, but she knows without a doubt that her father will be there for her wherever life will take them. And whenever the pressures of ruling and loneliness steep in, Izumi is determined to be there for him too.

**Author's Note:**

> i have watched a total of three episodes of legend of korra years ago and the only thing i know about it and izumi are two clips i was recommended on youtube and that she doesnt have a mom
> 
> but anyway zuko felt alone for most of his life and then suddenly he gets friends and then theyre off again and hes supposed to be fine w that?? nah man, that boys gonna need all the support he can get


End file.
